Last Saturday was the annual Whisky & Rum festival in IJmuiden, organized by a local but very well stocked liquor shop home to the same town (Zeewijck). Since IJmuiden is only 20 minutes or so from my home I have come to know the shop owner and shop a little bit and visit there a couple of times per year. Last year was my first trip to the festival and this year I planned not to go after hearing that it was planned for the exact date our firstborn is due.

But, since there were no signs of the wee one seeing the light of day anytime soon I carefully started breaking the news to the misses that I would kind of like to go to the festival after all. Without drinking of course, since I would have to be able to go home at any given moment.

She surprised my kindly shrugging and saying ‘well, it’s not like we got any other plans and as long as you can still drive…’. I was rather stunned. I love her.

So I made a quiet deal with Richard who runs the festival that I would like to drop by but buying a ticket was a risk. He was very kind and allowed me to not buy a presale ticket and such. Partly because I would not be a part of the actual festival including the booze and such (it saved all of us a bit of a hassle).

I arrived just after the biggest throng of people was in so the festival was in full swing already. Walking around a bit I saw some familiar faces and shook some familiar hands.

The atmosphere was rather terrific with people from all echelons of society happily going along. Exactly what I love about whisky (and comparable drinks). I hung around a few stands to have a chat. Kept a club member from being bored for half an hour trying to win a few souls for the Usquebaugh Society.

I had one whisky at the Kintra stand, a 22 year old Bladnoch that was quite different from Bladnoch’s distillery profile of grassy and sharpish. Good stuff! I thought about having something else but decided against it and after a few more chats I decided to call it a night.

Luckily I didn’t take that second dram, since I got pulled over for a general breathalizer test after leaving the festival. I think they were in exactly the right spot to write a few tickets that night!